katey in scandinavia: August 9, Monday

Wow, what a day!!

It's pretty late right now, but I had such a great day I had to share it with you all. We started the day at Bagsvaerd Church, a Jorn Utzon building. We haven't seen any of his other work, but he is most known for the Sydney Opera House. I wasn't too excited to go to another church because frankly I'm churched-out, but this turned out to be one of my favorite churches we've seen on the trip.

Next, we high-tailed it across the city to the Tietgen Dormitories. This project is one that was on the top of my list for buildings to see while in Scandinavia, and it didn’t let me down. As part of our assignments for the trip we were each given a few buildings to research and report on, and then present when we visited them. This was one of my buildings (my other one is tomorrow). I think that added to my affection for this building. I loved it, and it was definitely one of the best projects we’ve seen in looks, use and likeability. A student gave us a tour and discussed the building with us. A few highlights were the kitchens, which were stocked with supplies, but then left for the students to add things as they moved in, the living rooms, which were left unfurnished, but a sum of money was given to the students to figure out how to furnish them (they chose to have themes to each living room and to make them all different), and the general layout of the building (being in your personal space on the outside ring versus the public spaces at the center where everyone can see you). It’s a very community oriented space, and it has worked tremendously well. I could say so much more, but we went to four more places today so I will move on!

exterior of Tietgen

interior courtyard

close up on the room side of buliding

a basketball court for Greg

We then walked through the neighborhood down to Prags Boulevard which connects two buildings by Dorte Mandrup, Holmbladsgade Community Center and the Sports and Activity Center. Dorte is an architect who I researched a lot this last year, and she spoke at UW in the spring about some of her projects! It was very cool to see her stuff in person. I loved the interiors of her spaces.

Holmbladsgade Community Center addition

new upgrade inside the old building

Sport and Activity Center

green everywhere!

there was lots of playing today

We continued walking towards the water after leaving Dorte behind, in search of the Maritime Youth Center. It’s a great public park landscape type place, and really fun to play on! I’m not sure how many miles we had already walked at this point, but we continued along the water walking on the beach down to the Kastrup Bathing Pavilion, where we finally ended our day with some swimming! It was a great end to the day. The water was pretty cold, but you got used to it, and the weather had been a little nicer to us today. It’s a great hang out area with a few high dives, docks, and it’s just fun to play on. The guys were happy about the lack of rules (no running, no jumping, no diving…not a problem in Denmark).